Thank you, Mr. Chair. I am firmly planted on the fence in regard to this motion.
I understand fully why this project should go forward, and I do believe that through the master
plan of renovating this facility and the long-term care facility in Fort Smith, it will be of benefit.
My concern has to do with the timing. We were given to understand that the things in this particular appropriation were things which were required from a safety point of view, from a contract-in-place point of view — and I’ve forgotten the other one. My understanding is — and again it goes to the question of what the $853,000 has been spent on — that I don’t believe there’s a contract in place with this particular project.
My other concern has to do with — and I think it was raised by Mr. Hawkins — the concept of a regional hospital. Yellowknife has a territorial centre, Inuvik has a fairly large hospital, which could be considered territorial, and we need one south of the lake. Prior to reductions in the budget the question for me is: why are we approving this particular project as going forward prior to knowing what reductions need to be put in place to meet our target of $135 million in reductions?
I don’t doubt that the facility needs work, but I think that if possible, we should do an analysis of the Hay River and Fort Smith health centre capabilities and determine that there will be a fairly large either regional or territorial centre in one or the other of those two communities. I’m on both sides of the fence here. Thank you.